A) Euripides, Bacchae: Two things, young man, have supremacy among humans: The goddess Demeter&emdash;she is the earth, but call her whatever name you wish&emdash;nourishes mortals with dry food. But he who came then, the offspring of Semele, invented a rival, the wet drink of the grape, and introduced it to mortals. It releases wretched mortals from their pains, whenever they are filled with the stream of the vine, and gives them sleep, a means of forgetting their daily woes.

B) Aeschylus, Agamemnon 7-39: So now I am still watching for the signal [sumbolon] of the flame, the gleaming fire that is to bring news from Troy and tidings of its capture... (The signal fire suddenly flashes out.) Oh welcome, you blaze in the night, a light as if of day, you harbinger of the setting up of many khoroi in Argos in thanksgiving for this glad event! Iou! Iou! To Agamemnon's Queen I thus make a signal [sêmainô] to rise from her bed, and as quickly as she can to utter in a proper way [euphêmeô] in her palace halls a shout of ololu in welcome of this fire, if the city of Ilium truly is taken, as this beacon unmistakably announces. And I will join the khoros in a prelude upon my own account; for my lord's lucky roll of the dice I shall count to my own score, now that this beacon has thrown me triple six. Ah well, may the master of the house come home and may I clasp his welcome hand in mine! For the rest I stay silent; a great ox stands upon my tongue - yet the house itself, could it but speak, might tell a plain enough tale; since, for my part, by my own choice I have words for those who know, and to those who do not know, I am without memory. 

C) Homeric Hymn to Demeter 147-159: "Old Mother, we humans endure the gifts the gods give us, even when we are grieving over what has to be. They [the gods] are, after all, far better than we are. What I now say will be clear advice, and I will name for you the men who have the great control, divinely given, of tîmê here: the men who stand at the forefront of the dêmos and who protect the citadel of the polis with their wise counsel and their straight dikai. And then there are the wives too: of sound-minded Triptolemos, of Dioklos, of Polyxenos, of faultless Eumolpos as well, of Dolikhos, and of our splendid father [Keleos]. The wives of all of these manage the palace. Of these women, not a single one of them, when they first look at you, would deprive you of tîmê, the way you look, and turn you away from the palace. Rather, they will receive you.

D) Homeric Hymn to Demeter 174-183: And they, much as deer or heifers in the hôrâ of spring prance along the meadow, satiating their dispositions as they graze on the grass, so also they, hitching up the folds of their lovely dresses, dashed along the rutted roadway, their hair flowing over their shoulders, looking like crocus blossoms. They found the illustrious goddess sitting near the road, just the way they had left her. Then they led her to the phila palace of their father. She was walking behind them, sad in her philon heart. She was wearing a veil on her head, and a long dark robe [peplos] trailed around the delicate feet of the goddess.

E) Homeric Hymn to Demeter 198-211: For a long time she sat on the stool, without uttering a sound, in her sadness. And she made no approach, either by word or by gesture, to anyone. Unsmiling, not partaking of food or drink, she sat there, wasting away with yearning for her daughter with the low-slung girdle, until Iambê, the one who knows what is dear and what is not, started making fun. Making many jokes, she turned the Holy Lady's disposition in another direction, making her smile and laugh and have a merry thûmos. Ever since, she [Iambê] has been pleasing her [Demeter] with the sacred rites. Then Metaneira offered her [Demeter] a cup, having filled it with honey-sweet wine. But she refused, saying that it was divinely ordained that she not drink red wine. Then she [Demeter] ordered her [Metaneira] to mix some barley and water with delicate pennyroyal, and to give her [Demeter] that potion to drink. So she [Metaneira] made the kukeôn and offered it to the goddess, just as she had ordered. The Lady known far and wide as Dêô accepted it.

F) Homeric Hymn to Demeter 260-274: Immortal and ageless for all days would I have made your philos little boy, and I would have given him tîmê that is unwilting [a-phthi-tos]. But now there is no way for him to avoid death and doom. Still, he will have a tîmê that is unwilting [a-phthi-tos], for all time, because he had once sat on my knees and slept in my arms. At the right hôrâ, every year, the sons of the Eleusinians will have a war, a terrible battle among each other. They will do so for all days to come. I am Demeter, the holder of tîmai. I am the greatest boon and joy for immortals and mortals alike. But come! Let a great temple, with a great altar at its base, be built by the entire dêmos. Make it at the foot of the acropolis and its steep walls. Make it loom over the well of Kallikhoron, on a prominent hill. And I will myself instruct you in the sacred rites so that, in the future, you may perform the rituals in the proper way and thus be pleasing to my noos."

G) Homeric Hymn to Demeter 303-313: But blond-haired Demeter sat down and stayed there [in the temple], shunning the company of all the blessed ones [the gods]. She was wasting away with yearning for her daughter with the low-slung girdle. She made that year the most terrible one for mortals, all over the Earth, the nurturer of many. It was so terrible, it makes you think of the Hound of Hadês. The Earth did not send up any seed. Demeter, she with the beautiful garlands in her hair, kept them [the seeds] covered underground. Many a curved plough was dragged along the fields by many an ox - all in vain. Many a bright grain of wheat fell into the earth - all for naught. At this moment, she [Demeter] could have destroyed the entire race of meropes humans with harsh hunger, thus depriving of their tîmê the dwellers of the Olympian abodes - [the tîmê of] sacrificial portions of meat for eating or for burning, if Zeus had not noticed with his noos, taking note in his thûmos.

H) Homeric Hymn to Demeter 471-494: Straightaway she sent up the harvest from the land with its rich clods of earth. And all the wide earth with leaves and blossoms was laden. Then she went to the kings, administrators of themistes, and she showed them - to Triptolemos, to Diokles, driver of horses, to powerful Eumolpos and to Keleos, leader of the people [lâoi] - she revealed to them the way to perform the sacred rites, and she pointed out the ritual to all of them - the holy ritual, which it is not at all possible to ignore, to find out about, or to speak out. The great awe of the gods holds back any speaking out. Olbios among earth-bound mortals is he who has seen these things. But whoever is uninitiated in the rites, whoever takes no part in them, will never get a share of those sorts of things [that the initiated get], once they die, down below in the dank realms of mist. But when the resplendent goddess finished all her instructions, they [Demeter and Persephone] went to Olympus, to join the company of the other gods. And there they abide at the side of Zeus, who delights in the thunderbolt. Holy they are, and revered. Olbios is he whom they, being kind, decide to love among earth-bound mortals. Straightaway they send to such a man, to reside at his hearth, in his great palace, Ploutos [Wealth personified], who gives riches to mortal humans. But come, you goddesses, who have charge of the dêmos of Eleusis, fragrant with incense and of Paros the island and rocky Antron. Come, O lady resplendent with gifts, queen Dêô [Demeter], bringer of hôrai, both you and your daughter, the most beautiful Persephone. Think kindly and grant, in return for this song, a rich means of livelihood that suits the thûmos.

 

For more on Eleusis and the Eleusinan Mysteries, consult Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander. (Note: the text continues over several pages, so be sure to scroll forward using the blue arrows on either side of the page.) See also the Eleusinian Mysteries by Edward Beach.

Visit the course web page of Professor Marilyn Katz to view a Macedonian wall painting depicting the abduction of Persephone by Poseidon. Click here for more information on this and other images.

Also from Professor Katz: Daughters of Demeter (published in Becoming Visible: Women in European History, ed. Bridenthal, Stuard, and Wiener [Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., 1998]).

"Demeter's Olympian world was a patriarchal one, governed by Zeus, 'father of gods and men.' But in her myth, Demeter successfully resists the arbitrary and tyrannical exercise of patriarchal power, circumscribes her own areas of potency and authority, and celebrates her affinity with other female divinities. Similarly, the women of ancient Greece inhabited a polis ('city-state') which was governed by male authority, but in whose social, economic, and religious dimensions they participated actively. The ideology of women's place, along with representations of women in myth, literature, and art, sometimes conforms to this social reality but, just as often, contradicts it. A comprehensive understanding of women's role in the ancient Greek polis, and of the particularitiy of ancient Greek patriarchy, thus requires that we juxtapose ideology with social practice, and attempt to recover a notion of the polis as a cultural totality. Within it, elite women of all periods enjoyed special privileges. Women of the poorer classes, who were required to work for a living, escaped the dictates of a cultural ideal which associated the female with the inner spaces of the home. And women whose lives conformed to the cultural ideal nevertheless enjoyed the pleasures of formally sanctioned and informal associations with other women."